No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

In ancient Near Eastern literature, the 'heavenly council' represents the most authoritative decision-making agent in the universe and history. It is depicted by means of various typical expressions that are extensively used. Its presentation and concept are projected from the human council system; consequently, both the divine and human councils could illuminate each other. While such characteristics are also embedded in the 'heavenly council' of the Hebrew Bible, its employment is intriguing in that: 1) generally the heavenly council is the place where the God of Israel is incomparably central; 2) the major scenes of the heavenly council (i.e. 1 Kgs 22.19-23, Isa 6, Job 1.6-12, 2.1-6, Ps 82, Zech 3 and Dan 7.9-14), which are literaraly marked-off as type-scenes, are pivotal passages since they either emphatically represent the very theme, or are seriously engaged in generating the ultimate meaning, of their literary context; and 3) such tendencies are closely associated with 'theodicy', especially when they are employed in the context of crisis in YHWH monotheism.

No description available.

This thesis explores texts that offer responses to men (as opposed to women) dying without sons (as opposed to daughters). It will investigate how identity, covenant, name, property and seed are passed down from father to son, and establish both the post-mortem continuity of the man and the social reproduction of the בית אב , the house of the father. Using the work of Foucault as well as anthropological insights, this thesis will look at eight texts which respond to the threat of men dying without sons - Gen 19, Gen 38, Deut 25:5-10, Ruth, 2 Sam 14:1-24, 2 Sam 18:18, Isa 56:3-5 and Num 27, 36 – and instead of reading them as reflections of different institutions (such as Levirate Marriage, inheritance law, or household religion) will demonstrate how they are reflective of a particular discourse. Ancient Israelite and Judahite beliefs about death, burial and memorial will be explored as a context to the fears of social annihilation apparent in these texts. The name, the seed, property, inheritance, reproduction and genealogy, all ideas present in these texts in different ways, will then be reassessed to demonstrate how they, rather than being disparate ideas, form part of the same symbolic ways of thinking, in which the integrity of the family is protected and passed down through generations of descendants. It will then be shown how these texts construct men as transmitters of identity and women as submissive counterparts. The failure to protect the transmission of the family line is both a failure in masculinity, the male, and the social order, and leads to the eradication of the name and memory of the man, and so these must be responded to through actions such as Levirate Marriage and the erection of monuments.

The Theological Relationship Between the Book of Proverbs and Genesis to Kings. By utilizing an intertextual approach that makes use of allusion and typology, this thesis examines how wisdom’s link to creation, as found in the prologue to Proverbs, is paralleled in the salvation historical material of Genesis to Kings. The thesis explores the relationship between the themes of wisdom, creation, building, and provisioning, as understood against the conceptual worldview of the ancient Near East and Israel. In so doing, it becomes clear that the prologue to Proverbs roots human house building and other cultural activities in the divine patterning of creation (cf. Prov. 3:19-20; 24:3-4). The same pattern occurs with respect to wise tabernacle and temple building in Genesis to Kings (cf. Exod. 31:3; 1 Kgs. 7:14).

The text of the dissertation divides into two parts. Part One examines the relevance of human creation to intervention for the poor and needy in the Old Testament, and Part Two investigates the relevance of the roots [] and [] to the same theme. The study of the relevance of human creation to the concern for the poor and needy in the Old Testament (Part One) takes into account two streams of tradition. The first of these is centred on Genesis 1 and the creation of []. The relevance of this theme to the ethic of concern for the poor is never made explicit. Nevertheless, Genesis 9:6 clearly advocates a moral principle intended to govern the treatment of human beings, and it does so on the basis of human creation. This investigation concludes that the link between creation and the value God places on human life in this text owes something to the fact that creation established a relationship between God and mankind that is analogous to that of a father and child. The second stream of tradition, within the theme of human creation, deals with the creation of individuals in the womb. This tradition is explicitly related to the ethic of concern for the poor and needy, and is most clearly attested in Old Testament Wisdom literature. It is concluded that this theme is best understood in the context of family religion and the commitment of an individual's personal god to the protection of the individual. The association between the roots [] and [] and intervention for the poor and needy in the Old Testament is relatively easy to demonstrate, but more difficult to explain. Part Two of this dissertation investigates the connection. The meaning of the derivatives of each of these roots is examined in contexts dealing with intervention for the poor and needy. It is concluded that these terms have a strong juridical flavour in these contexts, and that this reflects how much the poor and needy depended on the judicial system to deliver them when they are in need of intervention by someone more powerful.

No description available.

No description available.